Transfer - but still here

Transfers.....I am still in the same place and I ended up having a great day of work new with my new companion, Elder Olivas, who is from Hawaii. He is Filipino but born in Hawaii, He is a brand new zone leader as well so we are going to kill it together!!

I've put several pictures of some of the families from the ward and some investigators. One is Boni, he got baptized on Saturday and we are really excited for him!! He is 22, in the army, is stationed in our area until August 29 where he will get deployed. THE BAPTISM WENT AMAZING!!! He couldn't stop saying how happy he was and excited he was. He video called his Girlfriend so she and her family could watch!! And he gave the most amazing testimony ever!! Then yesterday at church, he was able to receive a sustaining vote and received the Aaronic priesthood!! He and his girlfriend have been together for 5 years and she is an RM! SO HE IS AMAZING!! I really want to come back for their sealing next year if that could happen but we will see!

What is really cool is we have been finding tons of people.  There is this one, Nanay who I have been teaching on Sundays and she is getting really excited about our message, especially when we shared that she will be able to see her husband again. She took sudden interest and was curious, and you could see her getting happier, and the love of God working on her as we taught the plan of salvation. So hopefully beginning of October or end of September she should be baptized. 

There are 4 others that are looking like they have a lot of potential and will most likely be baptized at the end of September, possibly earlier if lessons get done, but of course, depends on them and the spirit.  They are El-john, Marielou, Mary grace, and Florentina. The first two are friends and on the swim team, whose coach is a member. Then the latter are two older sisters who just love hearing the gospel and said they have tons of people they want to refer to us,but they wanted to see church first. They came yesterday and it looks like it went really well!  My mission up to this point was planting, then the next cycle all of them would get baptized, after I already left, so I am happy that I am still in this area to see some of these miracles happen. 

Here is like a thought for the week:

I know that through the hard work and diligence, with a little faith, anything is possible. We just need to keep doing what we need to do every day. I am far from perfect but what keeps me going every day is the hope that some day I will be made perfect. Where I will become more like Christ and be perfected in him. Keep reading and making good choices and great things will happen!! I want to be more loving of all and be friends with everyone and will keep trying to be more Christ like because I feel I am far from it. The hope to always become better!

Miracles do happen!

Last Sunday was a great day of splits with members!! We killed it!! Taught 5 lessons, got 10 new people and we had a miracle happen!! As we walked into the church Sunday morning, we see a brother that we have never met before. So we go up to talk to him. His name is Boni and he is from Isabella, or REALLY FAR AWAY!! He tells us that he is stationed here at the Coast guard base for this month for schooling before he goes to Tarlac for deployment. He tells us that he was meeting with the missionaries in Isabella for some time now and has gone to church 3 times already. He wants to be baptized and all we need to do is teach him the lessons and he can baptized. He has a Girlfriend who is an returned missionary and they want to be married in the temple. They are both 22 years old and happy for the future! We were so happy to meet him!! and we can not wait to teach him!!! OH SO GREAT!!! , when we went back this week, he invited like the whole neighborhood to "HEAR THE WORDS OF GOD!!" So we teach like this whole compound and Eric agrees to read as much of the Book of Mormon as he can tonight and pray about it if it is true!! He was so excited!! He is GOLDEN!! I really hope we can get him baptized soon!! 

Monday, I took a record of members that we didn't know and went to finding them. We found tons of them that are no longer living there and this one miracle that we saw was Eric. This brother is around 30 years old, has 2 daughters and has his wife and was a great help in finding a certain members home. After talking with us for a second he asks "Hey do you want to come back and teach my and my family? You want to take my number? Come back on Sunday, that is the best day for." We were blown away!! 

Tuesday we had District council and then we traveled all day to the mission office where we started our exchanges with the AP;s. That night was interesting, I ended up talking with President for a while. He kept asking us opinions on how we can help the mission and he found a lot of my insights interesting. We also found out that not doing companionship and language studies isn't just in my companionship, it is the whole mission. Yeah he may be changing that soon. 

Wednesday was the whole exchange and I had a great time. Learned a little, but I found the AP's where picking my brain the whole time, so I taught them how to use only the Book of Mormon, and not any pamphlets, and they were blown away!! We had two lessons in a row where I left people crying, wanting to come closer to Heavenly Father and just telling us their concerns in their lives. And we were right there to help them and it was AMAZING to see the influence the Book of Mormon has on people!! 

Thursday: kind of a slower day where we went to our baptismal candidates and to an FHE and that was about it. 

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Friday: We had a conference where president called on me to teach the other Zone leaders how to use the Book of Mormon more effectively in all aspects of the work. AND IT WAS AMAZING!! At first they were all kind of mad because I encouraged them to never touch a pamphlet again but then I showed them how to use it and they started to get in the hang of it. Some of them really loved it and accepted my challenge to not use a pamphlet for a whole week. They were the best. I really felt the power of God working through me as I testified of the power of the Book of Mormon!! I can not describe it, just WOW!!

Then Saturday: we had our baptisms of Chanel and Leonila!! They were amazing and I some pictures are below.

Sunset from our apartment in Taguig/Bicutan